A Dance With Death

|| Chapter 37 - Traitor ||

                       

"Now, moving the pleasantries out of the way, we need to get back in action," Griffith declares. "So basically, from what I can gather from the slight tingling sensation that I'm feeling in my head due to the break in the Order, our situation has started to worsen and the number of deaths, quite possibly has increased. Althea, where do we stand?"

We're in my new room, the one I've been shifted to after I nearly blasted my previous room. According to the doctors and the staff, I've been 'temporarily' shifted to this ward. It is larger than the previous one, but is more crammed up as there are two more comatose patients in here. Luckily, for the sake of my comfort, these two patients have been coma-induced, which means they are alive and that there are no souls walking around in this room besides mine. Both of them are old men; in their 70s give or take. I'm glad because if their souls had been around, I wouldn't know how to talk to them. Perrie was here to see me, while I was sorting out things with Althea. I'm sure she'll be back soon so I decide that I'll wait for her right here.

Althea's seated with her elbows on her knees as she taps her feet on the floor, taking her time to answer Griffith's question. Meanwhile I lean against the wall beside her and take my time in adjusting to this new congested environment with machines and pipes all around me. The other two beds are against the wall in front of me, while mine is beside where I stand.

"Nowhere," Althea grumbles. "We don't even know where to start."

"Come on. There must be something. Something that's common from what he had done eight years ago?"

"I don't think I would've taken notice of what he was doing, because I was too busy worrying for my life."

Griffith groans. "Nothing? He followed no pattern?"

Althea shrugs. "Nothing."

"Okay. That's okay," Griffith says, trying hard to convince himself. "Maybe we'll just have to anticipate his next move. What happened after he disrupted the Order the previous time? Like what did he decide to do?"

"Well the next thing that he wanted to do was stay out of Death's way," Althea replies. "But now that Death's out of the picture for some apparent reason, we don't know what Caius is planning on doing."

"Well then, I think I know what you guys need to do," I grumble silently, having listened to their pointless conversation. They've been worrying about finding the solution this whole time when the solution was staring right at them. "You've talked about Mister Death so many times, but you haven't even thought of bringing him in 'the picture'," I air-quote Althea. I then say to Griffith, "You wanted to know where to start. I think this is where you should start. Bring Death in."

The reapers freeze in their spot, their faces showing horror. The two of them stare at me like I murdered their family – if they had one, that is. It is as if the name of Death has petrified them, brought some sort of tension in them.

"Do you even know what you're talking about?" Griffith spits with disbelief.

"I mean, I don't know what's stopping you from looking for him, but Death is literally the only thing in this world that's going to stop Caius," I explain. "We could sit around and look for reasons, or we could directly go to the root of the problem."

"Zayn," Althea stresses on my name. "No."

"Why not?" I shrug.

"Death is not like a friend or a helper who'll just come when we call," Griffith says. "He's not what you think he is. You can't even begin to understand the complications if Death comes to earth. There's a reason he's called Death."